


Head Over Heels in the Moment

by maurascalla



Category: X-Men Evolution
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Cute, F/M, Genderswap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-14
Updated: 2012-01-14
Packaged: 2017-10-29 12:20:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/319831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maurascalla/pseuds/maurascalla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>It started out innocently enough – or, well, not, since Landry was trying to break the law, but innocently enough as far as she can be innocent. She’d just wanted the answers to those tests, and Keith was the easiest way to get them. Sure, Landry could’ve done it on her own, but using Keith’s powers would’ve saved so much time. She didn’t mean to find his All-American Boy attitude so endearing.<em></em></em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Head Over Heels in the Moment

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cecilia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cecilia/gifts).



> This is a gift for the lovely and always fabulous [Cecilia](http://fuckmesweetly.tumblr.com/). Beta'ed by the ever delightful [Cher](http://zheeer.tumblr.com/). Title from the Jonas Brothers song 'Love Bug'. Yeah, I know. Shut up.

 

 

 

It started out innocently enough – or, well, not, since Landry was trying to break the law, but innocently enough as far as she can be innocent. She’d just wanted the answers to those tests, and Keith was the easiest way to get them. Sure, Landry could’ve done it on her own, but using Keith’s powers would’ve saved so much time. She didn’t mean to find his All-American Boy attitude so endearing. She meant to use him and lose him. But something about the boy had her moving across the country and shacking up with the Brotherhood just to stay near him.

 

Landry’s got the Brotherhood House’s phone plastered to her ear one Friday night while she listens to Keith complain about rooming with that fluffy blue menace. She doesn’t actually care that Kurt got him sick, or whatever he’s going on about now, but she does like the sound of his voice. It’s a bizarre mix of deeply masculine and absurdly valley girl. When Landry closes her eyes she can see the shape of Keith’s face. She smiles, feeling the pit of her stomach drop pleasantly.

“- don’t you think?” Keith says, forcing Landry out of her thoughts.

“Oh yeah, totally,” she says, not really sure what she just agreed to.

“Awesome! So you’ll come pick me up tomorrow at six?”

Landry can practically hear the smile in his voice. How can she possibly say no? “Yeah, okay.” She really hopes she hasn’t just agreed to donate a kidney or something.

“I gotta go, but I’ll see you tomorrow, right? Bye!”

“Bye,” Landry says, but Keith’s already hung up. She hits her forehead with the phone, groaning.

“I don’t know why you bother.” Landry looks up, startled. Wanda’s leaning against the door frame, her arms crossed. She’s shaking her head, like she can’t believe how stupid Landry is being. “People like him, they don’t want girls like us.”

“What do you mean, ‘girls like us’?” Landry asks, even though she knows the answer already.

“Damaged goods.” Wanda walks into their shared room, swaying her hips like there’s someone here to impress. Like she’s making a point. “Good boys, honest boys, they don’t want the likes of us.” She smirks. “At least, not for long.”

“Shut up.” Landry turns away, her back to Wanda. She doesn’t want to think about it. The other girl snickers, but doesn’t comment. Wanda is a bitch, Landry know this. But she also saw what happened when Freddie tried to date little miss Jean Grey. She wants to think that Keith is better than that. Landry takes a deep breath, calming her mind. She can feel the fault lines in the earth, and she’s sure to keep them steady.

Landry spends the rest of the night alternating between painting her fingernails and wondering if she needs a haircut while avoiding her roommate. By the time she passes out, her nails are a bright green, and she’s decided that she likes her hair the way it is: long, dark and vaguely scraggly. Besides, she doesn’t have the funds to get it cut, and the last time she did it herself it looked like someone took to her skull with a hack saw.

 

Six comes sooner than Landry expected. She’s only been up for five hours, so it doesn’t exactly feel like six o’clock. She’s picking on Pietro (seriously, what is with that hair?) with Toad in the living room when it dawns on her that it’s getting a little dark outside. With a quick glance at the clock she finds that it’s five forty-seven. She hasn’t even showered yet.

“Shit!” she exclaims, jumping up off the couch. She runs up the stairs, passing Wanda, and into the bathroom. Ten minutes later she is showered, dressed, and wondering if she should put on make-up, or if what she has on is okay for whatever it is Keith is going to have them do. She curses under her breath, wishing that she’d actually paid attention while the boy was speaking.

Landry sighs, grabs the keys to her Jeep, twenty dollars she has stashed away in her pillow case, and leaves the Brotherhood house. If she’s a little late, Keith doesn’t mention it.

 

He looks good in his stupid polo shirt. It’s pink, of all things, and he’s making it work. Landry watches him rush from the front door to her car, and smiles. “Hey,” he smiles back, all bright white teeth.

“Hi,” she says, a little nervous. She’s never been on a date before (if this is a date) and she doesn’t really know what to do. She clears her throat. “Where- where’re we going?”

Keith looks puzzled for a moment, before grinning. “To the movies. Remember, I was talking about that new Johnny Depp movie, and you made that sort of agreeing noise, so I asked if you wanted to go with me.”

“Yeah, yes. I remember. Of course I remember.” Landry shifts awkwardly before gunning it out of Xavier’s driveway. Keith lets out a shout of surprise, holding on to his seat belt for dear life. Landry laughs, finding the terror on his face hilarious.

 

They’re walking back to Landry’s Jeep after the movie when Keith asks, “Where are your gloves?” He grabs one of Landry’s hands. His skin is pale and soft against hers

“I ah- I forgot to put them on.” He swipes his thumb under her palm, sending shivers up her spine.

“Are you cold?” Keith asks, like he thinks she might actually be cold, despite the warm May air. There’s a twinkle in his eye that lets her know that he knows exactly what he’s doing to her. She swats his hands away, smiling.

“Creep.”

They grin at each other, and Landry can’t ever remember feeling so elated. Her heart’s beating a mile a minute. She stares up into his eyes, blue and shining. There’s a long moment where Landry can feel something building up between them. It ends when Keith clears his throat, looking away.

“It’s almost curfew.” He says, sliding up to the Jeep. He opens Landry’s door for her with a grand sweeping gesture. She shakes her head, smiling.

 

At school, on the following Monday, Keith surprises Landry with a hug and a bright, toothy grin. “Morning,” he says. Landry blushes, and Toad makes kissy faces at her when Keith’s got his back turned. She pushes him none-to-gently in the other direction, smiling prettily when Keith asks why Toad’s stumbling down the hallway.

“I’ve got to go to class, but I’ll see you at lunch, okay?” Keith touches her shoulder. Landry nods, tucking her hair behind her ear. She was going to skip out before lunch and head back to the Brotherhood house, but the prospect of eating lunch with Keith, in full view of Wanda and all of the X-geeks, is just too great of an opportunity. Partly because she wants to make Wanda eat her words, and partly because she’s so absolutely flattered. Landry likes to spend time with Keith.

It wasn’t supposed to work out like this. She should be back in Deerfield. She should’ve forgotten all about Keith Pryde and his do-gooder attitude as soon as she’d gotten what she wanted from him. Instead she’s wondering how his hands would feel on her hips, thousands of miles from home. Watching him walk down the hallway, Landry’s glad for the way things have worked out.

 

In English, Landry’s first and most boring class of the day, her pocket vibrates. She pulls her stolen cell from her pocket and flips it open under her desk. She smiles at Keith’s number.

 _mrs harris is so boring_ , he says.

 _taylors no better_ , she replies, pressing buttons like rapid fire. _at least harris doesnt smell like fish_.

They text back-and-forth for the rest of the morning, complaining about teachers and the other students. Landry hasn’t had such an enjoyable school day in ages, and it only gets better during lunch. Keith sits with her the whole time, and laughs when she steals his fries. Landry’s in hog heaven, and she wonders how she ever came to deserve it.

 

It all goes to shit two days later, when the Brotherhood and the X-Men get into a little skirmish. It’s hardly a fight at all. Everything should be fine, except Keith won’t answer her phone calls. Landry doesn’t know where they stand anymore, and she doesn’t know how to ask, even if they were speaking.

The Brotherhood lost, spectacularly, which isn’t anything new, but this sense of dread in the pit of Landry’s stomach is. She’s got the house phone pressed against her chest, holding it between gloved hands, and this is the thirteenth time she’s tried to get a hold of Keith. She just wants to make sure he’s okay.

“I told you,” Wanda says, clearly pleased with herself. Landry looks up at her roommate. She glares, and Wanda’s smirk widens. “He just wanted to play. He’s done now.”

Landry opens her mouth to say something, anything, cutting, when the phone rings, startling them both.

“Hello?”

“Landry? Hey. Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner. Logan was bitching at us about the fight. Something about like, not using our training right, or something. Anyway, are you okay?” Keith rambles in his usual fashion, and Landry breathes out a sigh of relief.

“I’m fine. Good. How’re you?”

“I think I sprained my ankle on that crack you made in the lawn, but other than that, I’m good.”

Landry winces. “I was aiming for Scott.”

Keith laughs, and the sinking feeling in her stomach lifts. “I gotta go. Kurt needs help walking around after Toad threw him into that wall. I just wanted to check in and make sure you were okay.”

“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow though?”

“Yeah,” Keith says. The ‘duh’, while unsaid, was definitely implied. “Lunch.”

Their goodbyes are brief, and Landry smiles. She gives Wanda a triumphant look. Everything feels light, and she’s never been so elated. Things aren’t perfect, and they never will be, they’re on opposing sides of a war, or something. She’s a little fuzzy on the details. But still, Landry wants to make it work with mister All-American Boy. The guy who, despite the odds, likes her just the way she is. And that’s something to hold on to.


End file.
